This invention relates to a liquid heating system of general and diverse utility and particularly to a shipboard water or other liquid heating system for deep sea divers and the like. The invention has come into being as the direct result of a longstanding unsatisfied need for a safer, more efficient and simpler heating system for divers possessing adequate back-up safeguards.
Water heating arrangements for divers are known, one example being disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,762,392. It is an object of the present invention to improve on the arrangement in this patent and the prior art in general.
In its essence, the present invention is embodied in an unpressurized shell or tank which may be substantially filled with water or other liquid to be heated for diverse uses at remote locations. Within the shell and substantially immersed in the liquid therein is a combustion chamber or firebox preferably having a dry bottom which may burn solid, gaseous or liquid fuels. Atop the firebox in direct communication therewith is an array of rising fire tubes which are surrounded by and exposed to the liquid filling the shell, thereby forming a primary heat exchanger. Above the fire tubes, a combustion products exhaust arrangement is provided which may be partly immersed in the liquid within the shell. The resulting liquid heater can be used for diverse applications with or without secondary immersed heat exchangers through which another fluid or fluids may be circulated by the operation of conventional means.
Other important objects and features of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art during the course of the following detailed description.